Headache and Migraine happens often, sometimes you can’t even escape it in a week. It interrupts your daily activities or hinder you from doing it effectively.
Here are the little tricks you should know on how to tackle these pains without visiting a doctor and sometimes taking pills.
1. Heat
Placing a heating pad or hot compress for few minutes on intervals on the place that hurts will relax the muscles if you’re having a tension headache. You can try taking a warm refreshing bath to help your whole body relax.
2. Cold Compress
You can try a cold compress if you can’t tolerate heat. Place a bag of ice blocks on your head for about 10-15 minutes, take a break after that and repeat the process till you start feeling relieved. The cold compress has a numbing effect on the pain.
3. Off Your Lights
Most often, headaches and migraines are caused by light sensitivity. If you’ve been outside in the bright sunny afternoon or you have a flickering bulb or light source. Get into a dark and quiet room, lay on the bed and relax. Avoid using devices e.g laptop, television and phones because they also emit light which can worsen your migraine. If you’re fond of turning your phone’s brightness to the highest while using it, try to lower it or better still avoid using the phone for too long in a dark room.
4. Be Gentle
Avoid doing any rough movements like stomping the feet, running, jumping, dancing or even chewing hard.
5. Caffeine
Taking a caffeinated drink, beverage or coffee in little amount can ease your headache or migraine if taken at the early stage. Research found that little amount of caffeine can help relieve headache more efficiently than OTC drugs. Be cautious and don’t take it in high quantity to avoid the opposite of relief.
6. Relax Your Scalp
Tensioning of the scalp can cause headache. If you tied your hair into a high ponytail or newly braided it and you discover it’s too tight even after hours, loosen it. This will provide a surge of relief.
Wearing tight caps or headbands also gives you headache. Remove it and let your head breathe and relax.
7. Apply Pressure
Sometimes the reverse is the case. Tie your head tight- not too tight with a scarf. After about 5-10 minutes, untie it. This helps to magically reduce your headache.
8. Massage
Ask or give yourself a scalp and head massage. Apply little pressure while massaging your temples in a gentle circular motion.
9. Avoid Scent
Perceiving a very strong smell either from smoke or perfume can cause or worsen the pain. If the clothes you are wearing is strongly scented, option for a change.
10. Sleep
Most often, headache and migraine is caused by stress. Take a nap, it’ll help relieve you. Try and simplify your life or do things to unwind at the end of each day.
Sleep early and longer but avoid oversleeping because it triggers headache.
You can as well take a pain reliever and practice all these steps for fast and effective result. Visit your doctor if you’re having strong concurrent headache for a long while.
Read also: Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Take Paracetamol
